Might the legacy of the media coverage of the wedding be bigger than that of the Olympics?

The Royal Wedding is becoming a major international media event, a major opportunity to market London for tourism. Mark Di-Toro a spokesman for VisitBritain is reported in The Times (23 April 2011) as having predicted �50m of tourist spend in one day, based on a normal day of 500,000 tourists in London plus 600,000 additional tourists for the wedding. Visit Britain is using the wedding as a springboard for a �100m global marketing campaign starting with the wedding, running on through the Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee. VisitBritain is forecasting an extra �2billion for the British economic and 50,000 extra jobs.

I would not be surprised if the legacy of the media coverage of the wedding is bigger than that of the Olympics � the wedding will showcase the pageantry and architecture of London far more than will the Olympics. The Wedding will cost the taxpayer significantly less than the Olympics.  Read more

Interest is such that the Place is under pressure to extend the lighting of Buckingham Palace to keep the lights on by American and Australian broadcasters to facilitate their coverage of the event. Tom Barton, programme manager for the Foreign Press Association, said it was ridiculous to turn the lights out for the sake of climate change during the biggest broadcast event of recent years. Read more